O complexo Atuba: um cinturão paleoproterozóico intensamente retrabalhado no Neoproterozóico

Studies of terranes between the northern Ribeira and southern Dom Feliciano Belts allow the characterization of three geotectonic domains with different evolutions: the Luís Alves, Curitiba and Paranaguá terranes. The Atuba Complex occurs in the Curitiba Domain, which has a northwestern limit with metassediments of the Açungui and Setuva Groups and a southwestern limit with the granulitic gneisses of the Luis Alves domains. The contacts are expressive shear zones. The predominant rocks of the Curitiba Domain are banded, migmatitic gneisses in amphibolite grade with biotite-amphibole gneissic mesosomes and tonalitic/granodioritic to granitic leucosomes, here called the Atuba Complex. The migmatites are Paleoproterozoic (2.000 ± 200 Ma) and remigmatized in Neoproterozoic (600 ± 20 Ma). During the latter period temperatures reached more than 500º C. The structural pattem indicated shear-controlled tectonics with an important lateral component, and low-angle, south-southeastwards transport direction. The terranes of the Atuba Complex appear to represent deep-level rocks which were migmatized, granitized and then added to the border of the Luis Alves Microplate during the Neoproterozoic. This late Neoproterozoic tectonic scheme which continued to the Cambro-Ordoviciano seems to be the result of larger-scale processes of continental agglutination which ended with the formation of western Gondwanaland.Os estudos realizados nos terrenos localizados entre os Cinturões Ribeira (N) e Dom Feliciano (S) permitiram caracterizar a existência de três domínios geotectônicos com evoluções próprias e distintas: Domínios Luis Alves, Curitiba e Paranaguá. O Complexo Atuba se insere no âmbito do Domínio Curitiba, que se limita a noroeste com as seqüências metassedimentares dos Grupos Açungui e Setuva, e a sudeste com os gnaisses granulíticos do Domínio Luis Alves, contatos esses que se fazem por importantes zonas de cisalhamento. Predominam no Domínio Curitiba rochas gnáissicas bandadas, migmatíticas, do fácies anfibolito, representadas principalmente por biotita-anfibólio-gnaisses contendo leucossomas de composições tonalitogranodioríticas além de graníticas, que compõem o aqui denominado Complexo Atuba. Caracteriza-se por migmatitos formados no Paleoproterozóico (2.000 ± 200 Ma), remigmatizados no Neoproterozóico (600± 20 Ma), período esse em que as isotermas atingiram temperaturas superiores a 500 ºC. O padrão estrutural observado é indicativo de uma tectônica controlada em grande parte por cisalhamento, com importante componente lateral, e transporte relativo em direção a sul-sudeste. As rochas pertencentes ao Complexo Atuba representam terrenos relativamente profundos, do fácies anfibolito, migmatizados, granitizados acrescidos à borda do Domínio Luis Alves (Microplaca Luis Alves) durante o Neoproterozóico. Este quadro tectônico definido no final do Neoproterozóico com continuidade até o Cambro-Ordoviciano, parece ser o resultado de processos maiores, envolvendo aglutinações de massas continentais, que culminaram com a formação do Gondwana Ocidental

Decay of the High-K Isomeric State to a Rotational Band in 257Rf

The 257Rf isotope has been populated via the 208Pb(50Ti, n) fusion-evaporation reaction and delayed gamma-ray and electron decay spectroscopy has been performed. The existence of a high-K isomeric state in 257Rf has been confirmed. The isomeric state decays into a rotational band based on the 11/2(-)[725] excitation, which was observed up to spin of (23/2(-)). Three multipolarity-E1 gamma transitions depopulating the isomeric state have been observed, which fixes the spin for that state to (21/2(+)). This assignment agrees with theoretical predictions calculated with the microscopic-macroscopic approach, which suggest the isomeric state to be formed by coupling an unpaired 11/2(-)[725] quasineutron to the (1/2(-)[521] circle times 9/2(+)[624])(5)- two-quasiproton state. The same two-quasiproton excitation is possible for the lowest isomer in 256Rf

The role of chemotherapeutic drugs in the evaluation of breast tumour response to chemotherapy using serial FDG-PET

INTRODUCTION: The aims of this study were to investigate whether drug sequence (docetaxel followed by anthracyclines or the drugs in reverse order) affects changes in the maximal standard uptake volume (SUVmax) on [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) during neoadjuvant chemotherapy in women with locally advanced breast cancer. METHODS: Women were randomly assigned to receive either drug sequence, and FDG-PET scans were taken at baseline, after four cycles and after eight cycles of chemotherapy. Tumour response to chemotherapy was evaluated based on histology from a surgical specimen collected upon completion of chemotherapy. RESULTS: Sixty women were enrolled into the study. Thirty-one received docetaxel followed by anthracyclines (Arm A) and 29 received drugs in the reverse order (Arm B). Most women (83%) had ductal carcinoma and 10 women (17%) had lobular or lobular/ductal carcinoma. All but one tumour were downstaged during therapy. Overall, there was no significant difference in response between the two drug regimens. However, women in Arm B who achieved complete pathological response had mean FDG-PET SUVmax reduction of 87.7% after four cycles, in contrast to those who had no or minor pathological response. These women recorded mean SUVmax reductions of only 27% (P < 0.01). Women in Arm A showed no significant difference in SUVmax response according to pathological response. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and positive and negative predictive values were highest in women in Arm B. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that SUVmax uptake by breast tumours during chemotherapy can be dependent on the drugs used. Care must be taken when interpreting FDG-PET in settings where patients receive varied drug protocols

Head of State of Exception

During the escalation of the “German Autumn” in 1977 the Federal German government resorted to a specific form of crisis management that had been described as an undeclared state of exception. It was Federal chancellor Helmut Schmidt in the first place who oversaw the anti-terrorist measures in the situation room where the executive branch ruled for six weeks beyond any parliamentary control. This article examines the role that Helmut Schmidt had played for the creation of a “subjective state of exception” (Julius Hatschek) and how this could be seen as stemming from Schmidt’s earlier experiences and handling of crisis situations dating back to the 1960s. In this regard it has to be asked with Giorgio Agamben, if in the West German case, the state of exception had become the rule

Niccolo Machiavelli, cultural intermediaries and the category of achieved celebrity

The escalating interest in celebrity studies has not translated into a serious enquiry into the origins of the subject in social and political theory. Instead, celebrity has been usually explained as either the reflection of industrialisation or the expression of timeless, unchanging fate. The result is a distorted, compressed time frame in which the phenomenon is located in unsatisfactory, metaphysical accounts of the position of celebrity in the social order. This paper aims to redress the balance by demonstrating the profound importance of cultural intermediaries in the social construction of celebrity. I argue that the birth of cultural intermediaries lies in Florentine civic humanism. Machiavelli’s The Prince has been celebrated as a major contribution to the acquisition and effective management of tyrannical power. There is ample reason to hold this view. At the same time, this interpretation is too limiting. When read from the standpoint of the rise of Florentine civic humanism, the text is also, transparently, a contribution to the successful engineering of renown. More particularly, in this respect, it offers a prototypical understanding of cultural intermediaries. As such, this paper contends that Machiavelli’s study is a seminal contribution to the study of celebrity. Machiavelli formulates impersonal principles on exposure management and the accumulation of attention capital that are presented as the preserve of civil experts. Far from being the high-water mark of tyrannical power, The Prince is evidence of the growth of civic humanism and the ascending importance of expertise in managing fame. The paper aims to revise the boundaries of celebrity studies by demonstrating the canonical significance of Machiavelli’s text. Further, it proposes that cultural intermediaries are seminal in the emergence and development of the fame economy

Canakinumab as treatment for COVID-19-related pneumonia: A prospective case-control study

Objectives: Canakinumab is an IL-1\u3b2 antibody that neutralises the activity of IL-1\u3b2. This study examined the efficacy and safety of canakinumab in patients with moderate COVID-19-related pneumonia. Design: This study aimed to evaluate the reduction in duration of hospitalisation with adequate oxygen status. Forty-eight patients with moderate COVID-19-related pneumonia were asked to participate in the prospective case-control study: 33 patients (cases) signed informed consent and received canakinumab (Cohort 1) and 15 patients (Controls) refused to receive the experimental drug and received institutional standard of care (Cohort 2). Results: Hospital discharge within 21 days was seen in 63% of patients in Cohort 1 vs. 0% in Cohort 2 (median 14 vs. 26 days, respectively; p < 0.001). There was significant clinical improvement in ventilation regimes following administration of canakinumab compared with Cohort 2 (Stuart-Maxwell test for paired data, p < 0.001). Patients treated with canakinumab experienced a significant increase in PaO2:FiO2 (p < 0.001) and reduction in lung damage by CT (p = 0.01), along with significant decreases in immune/inflammation markers that were not observed in Cohort 2. Only mild side-effects were seen in patients treated with canakinumab; survival at 60 days was 90.0% (95% CI 71.9\u201396.7) in patients treated with canakinumab and 73.3% (95% CI 43.6\u201389.1) for Cohort 2. Conclusions: Treatment with canakinumab in patients with COVID-19-related pneumonia rapidly restored normal oxygen status, decreased the need for invasive mechanical ventilation, and was associated with earlier hospital discharge and favourable prognosis versus standard of care